Some Texas news

Who would have guessed that the State of Texas would put an innocent man to death? Sadly I’m not surprised. I used to support the death penalty until I actually took the time to read about all the cases where people have proven they were wrongly convicted. You would think more effort would be put into a case where someone’s life is on the line. But that just wouldn’t make good headlines. No, we have to look tough on crime.

From the article:

In what some opponents say looks like a political move and Gov. Rick Perry says was “business as usual,” the governor replaced the head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and two other members on Wednesday, just 48 hours before the commission was to hear testimony from an arson expert who believes that Mr. Willingham was convicted on faulty testimony, a conclusion that has been supported by other experts in the field.

Mr. Perry’s decision to shake up the commission and put one of his political allies in charge has, at the least, delayed the inquiry into the Willingham case. While Mr. Perry says he has no political motive for the move, his opponents have called for the commission to finish its inquiry.

Playing politics with someone’s life; how very Texas Republican of Perry. I guess he’s trying to follow in Bush’s footsteps. After all, Bush played politics with millions of people’s lives around the world, and we all know how that worked out. Everyone sure loves the US right now.

But what really stands out is that bad science is to blame. Well of course we use bad science in Texas, just look at our school board. The right hates science. Hell, I’m more surprised they did any investigation at all. Would have been easier to just tie a rope around the guy’s neck with a rock on the other end and then throw him in a river. If he floated, burn the witch. If he drowned then innocence proved. See how easy this is. All that money wasted on investigations when the Dark Ages provided us with the simplest tests for finding out people’s true nature. I hear thumb screws save a lot of litigation time.

Hank Gilbert calls out Perry’s bullshit:

“Governor Perry’s decision to remove and replace three very competent members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission with three partisan ideologues should surprise absolutely no one.

This was a political decision by a Governor who wanted avoid criticism of the horrendous record Texas has regarding the execution of the innocent. The Governor’s decision should make it crystal clear to every Texan that justice in this state is controlled by the whims of an out-of-control Governor desperate to retain his grip on power.

Governor Perry’s actions were wholly unacceptable. Texas deserves better.”

I would say that humanity deserves better.

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In other news, a Dallas judge has ruled that same sex married couples should be allowed to divorce in Texas. Oh the horror. What is so bad about this? Well, we don’t like them gays in Texas, even though the only things that come from Texas are steers and queers (at least that’s what my drill instructor said in basic training, how original).

Although the case is far from settled, and the state’s constitutional ban on gay marriage is a long way from being thrown out, Dallas state District Judge Tena Callahan’s ruling says the state prohibition of same-sex marriage violates the federal constitutional right to equal protection.

No shit. But we wouldn’t want something as silly as constitutional rights to get in the way of religious justice. We should burn the witches! Seriously, the whole same sex marriage ban is based on far right religious fear mongering; the lies that churches will be forced to perform gay marriages and that traditional marriage will suffer because we will all have to marry a gay person.

Two things; one, marriage is not controlled by religion. The state marries people all the time. Two, allowing states to vote against people’s basic rights is insane. We all know there’s a couple of states in the southern part of our country that would vote back in slavery if given the chance. The whole state’s right argument is crap; the Constitution trumps any state’s decisions. I know Governor Good Hair hates to hear that. Might explain his desire to start his own little fiefdom.

A study has been released showing that “there is no significant difference in emotional problems experienced by children adopted by heterosexual and gay or lesbian parents.” But this won’t stop the right from screaming that gays are a threat to families!

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On a good note, Texas just become home to the largest wind farm in the world.

The farm contains 627 wind turbines on almost 100,000 acres of land near Roscoe, Texas.

Wind energy is big business here in Texas, generating more energy with wind than any other state. The Texas grid is the 10th largest in the world, and 12 percent of our electricity currently comes from the wind. We are set to double that in the next 5 years.

To harness all that wind Texas created the CREZ program, committing to build 2000 miles of transmission lines to bring the energy to market. This is creating a lot of jobs right now which are sorely needed. And the towers being built are made from recycled steel.

We should place a wind mill in front of Governor Perry every time he opens his mouth.

Electoral Blue Balls

I’m sitting here with MSNBC on mute in the background, and they keep showing a US map in different colors, with a chart about electoral college votes in the corner. Why the fuck do we still have the electoral college? Do you know anyone in it? It can after all elect the next president, regardless of what the people do, shouldn’t we get to know who’s in it? Why is it that 538 people, chosen by the parties, get to pick the person who then gets to pick the people who interpret our laws?

How is that democratic? Do you feel represented knowing that someone, picked by a political party machine, can vote for who ever they want regardless of who the people vote for? Why do we even bother voting?

Makes me wonder why we are seeing a billion dollars spent on an election that only 538 people get to vote in. The rest is a dog and pony show, another tax on you and me, a transfer of wealth.

I’m not buying the public funding crap either. McCain got 84 million bucks from the tax payer. Where did we get that kind of money when we are 10 trillion in the hole?

With all the money in politics, and with no idea who is in the electoral college, how can we the people know who’s electing our president for us and how much they got payed to do it?

Anti-American My Ass

I have to call the Republicans out on this new McCarthyism bullshit. I remember all too well being called anti-American in 2002 for protesting the fucking Patriot Act, a piece of fascist legislation if ever there was any. I remember being told I loved terrorists because I didn’t support the Iraq war, which had nothing to do with terror unless you mean the terror felt by the Iraqi people as our planes bombed their cities in our quest to steal their oil.

When I hear a US Rep calling for the media to start investigating anti-American activity in the other party, I can’t help but wonder when we the people will start doing the very same thing with both. The Patriot Act, voted in by Democrats and Republicans alike, goes against everything this country is supposed to stand for. The Iraq war is colonialism wrapped in “democracy building”, and a majority of both sides voted for it. This latest bailout bullshit is a money grab by the rich, a way to ensure a spoiled aristocrat class gets to keep living the good life while the rest of us suffer. What could be less American? No fuck that, what could be less humane?

Want to find un-American activity? Let’s start with the “free speech” zones at both major parties conventions. Or how about voting for the fucking FISA bill? How did that make America better?

Both candidates talk about war with Iran, continuing war in Afghanistan and most likely Pakistan. Both want to EXPAND our monster war machine! How is that helping America? These are the things that make the rest of humanity hate us more.

I hold both parties responsible for this fucking mess, but more importantly I hold us all responsible for letting them do it. We the people are supposed to hold our elected officials accountable. And as human beings we should never feel it’s OK to murder other humans for make believe ideologies, nationalistic rhetoric or profit margins.

But today my rage is aimed specifically at the Republicans. How dare you sons of bitches start calling anyone who doesn’t support your views anti-American when you know full well what that really means is less then human. It’s the first step towards opening the door for genocide. It’s stirring up desperate people, giving them a target for their rage. It gets people killed. It’s how you start civil wars.

And don’t even try to tell me I am making too much of this. We have been very lucky in this country in that we haven’t had anymore major internal wars. But this kind of shit, this turning us against each other at a time when things are at their worst is not just un-American, it’s down right evil. Humanity as a whole needs each other to survive, but down to a nation based level if the very notion of a republic is going to exist, we the people need to realize that unity is far more powerful in overcoming the hard times then division.

But hey, if we want to start looking for anti-American activity, let’s take a good long look at Congress and Executive branch. Like it says in the Declaration of Independance, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” Maybe its time to throw the whole fucking lot of them out and start anew. After all, are any of them really making your life better?

Two Quick Points on McCain’s Comments

Being a veteran doesn’t mean you can’t also be a big fat fucking racist piece of shit. Don’t give me that respect all veterans shit traitor. I served with some of the most ignorant, racist, sexist, homophobic assholes I’ve ever know. And most of them were great soldiers, but they were still pieces of shit.

Second, ACORN is a red hearing. Their the Mexicans of 2008 that are tryig to steal our democracy instead of our jobs. ACORN is not a bad group. The Republicans are spreading this vote stealing meme to stir up controversy and change the subject from the economy to anything else.

Ok, three comments. Vouchers are another way for white people to get their kids out of schools with “others” and put them in religious schools. Period.

Tonite’s Circle Jerk

Ok kids, here goes another exercise in futility. What are the chances that anything substantial will be discussed tonite? My guess is not much.

Will Ayers finally be mentioned? What about Liddy? Hell, for that matter what about Rezko and Simmons? Who knows. Will anyone care? My guess is not much.

Will we hear about how both men plan on saving the universe with their super amazing plans? Probably. How much of anything they promise will actually come to fruition? My guess is still not much.

What do you think? (I know no one reads this, but it makes me feel better to pretend.) Here’s my guess for what will be said about the debate tomorrow that wasn’t said about the last two: not much.

One More Time

Tomorrow is the last Presidential debate. Let’s see if McCain brings up anything from Obama’s past. What would be better is for Obama to bring up McCain’s past, from his friendship with the right-wing extremist, enemy of our Republic and convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy to William Timmons, who used to lobby for Saddam Fucking Hussein.

Game on McCain, you fucking traitor.

Another Night of Banality

So, will we get an actual debate about actual issues, or 90 minutes of McCain attacking Obama? My bet is on the latter. McCain has nothing else to go with at this point. Hell, maybe he’ll just send out Palin to scream at Obama for the whole debate instead.

Anyhow, be back after the debate.

Update:

Well, that was crap. Neither of them will admit to the elephant in the room, and I don’t mean McCain. Notice how both want to EXPAND the fucking military, want to make love to Israel, want to give money to everyone and anyone, and both want us to invade other countries when ever we feel like it.

For fucks sake, this is why people hate us. This arrogance is what makes people want to kill Americans. While our country is falling apart our politicians still talk about spending more money on misadventures around the world. Meanwhile they want to place the blame for all our woes on anyone but who is at fault: namely all of us.

We the people have a trillion dollar credit card bill. We the people elect and re-elect these assholes. We the people move our 401k’s around to who ever is making the most money, forcing investors to develop ever creative ways of creating returns. We the people bought houses and cars and crap we couldn’t afford. And now we want the government to fix it without spending any money, creating any new debt, applying any more regulations or making any more laws. Are you fucking kidding me?

Look, the system is fundamentally fucked because we the people are a bunch of spoiled brats who want new cheap shit to continue to fill the shelves at Walmart. And now we have a choice to make between a corrupt old war monger and a corrupt young war monger. Wonderful.

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Free market capitalism is crap. But so is socialism. Religion is crap. But so is atheism. What we are left with is reality, which is that we have a finite amount of space and resources and we are running out of both. We are stuck with each other so we better get over what ever it is that drives us apart. We are at beast semi-conscious carbon based organisms floating on a speck of dust in a sea of infinity. Statically speaking there is zero life in the universe, and we are working hard to reach zero.

……….

One last thing. I will still vote for Obama in November because I do think he is a little bit less of an asshole then McCain. Not much, but that’s what we have to go with. Life ain’t fair and it ain’t pretty. I hate the fact that the parties have a head lock on our democracy. I have yet to hear from anyone yet who seems to get it, so once again it’s down to the lesser of two evils.

Which sucks because I’ve tried and tried to get excited about candidates and participating only to realize that it’s all smoke and mirrors. I’d run myself if I thought I could actually change anything.

Domestic Terrorist?

For fucks sake, now Sarah Palin, who hates America and doesn’t want to be a citizen of this country, is saying Obama pals around with terrorists because he has met Bill Ayers. Big fucking deal. John McCain campaigned for the real terrorist George W. Bush. Big difference.

Ayers and the Weathermen are only terrorists in the sense that those folks that threw tea into Boston harbor are terrorists. Or like Cheney thinks Nelson Mandela is a terrorist.

Personally I would rather have a beer with Ayers over the traitor John McCain any day. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Every generation needs a revolution.” Well maybe it’s time for ours. Ayers and people like him were fighting to end a war that had killed tens of thousands of drafted Americans and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. McCain is still trying to win that illegal and unjust war through Iraq. He supports the terror that is inflicted on the Iraqi population every day by our bombs, raids and snipers.

What is worse, bombing a couple of buildings to draw attention to a just cause or bombing a population into submission who has never threatened you so you can steal their natural resources? Look, Ayers and the rest weren’t perfect, but what else could they do? Thousands of Americans were being slaughtered in Vietnam every year. What those kids did wasn’t terrorism, it was patriotism, it was trying to stop the rich and powerful from committing MORE crimes against humanity. Terrorism it was not, unless I am supposed to feel bad for the rich and powerful because a few college kids tried to take a stand against them with a few homemade bombs and some literature.

As for Palin, what a fucking cunt. She doesn’t even want to be American, yet she has the gall to try to call out Obama. Fuck her and her America hating ass. She is George Bush with a pussy; no brains, all ambition. She would make a great new fuck toy for McCain, that is if he can still feel that wrinkled up cock; you know that’ why he picked her, he wants to pull a Clinton and get a little in the Oval Office.

After the past few weeks maybe a good old revolution ain’t such a bad idea. I’ve been hearing as much from coworkers from both sides of the aisle. And I’m not just talking about this country, I’m talking globally. Because if we all don’t start fighting for change soon, it ain’t going to matter. The environment is going to flip on us and rich or poor we are all going to suffer. But if we start changing the system today, if we wipe out the riches and greediest of us, stop their wars for profit and start focusing on taking care of all humanity, then we might have a chance.

But if we keep listening to those that put personal ambition ahead of common sense and basic human dignity, then we deserve what we get. In the mean time think long and hard about what makes a person a terrorist; is it someone who fights for what is right and decent or is it someone who sends others to fight for power and greed?

For Real?

Yesterday I ran into an old friend, and our conversation quickly turned to politics being it’s that time of year. Now, you have to understand, this old friend is a true bra-burning hippie liberal from the sixties, someone who most of the time makes me feel like I’m a centrist. She has always been someone I looked to when I wasn’t sure which side of an issue a good liberal should be on. But that all changed in five seconds flat.

My dear friend said she liked Sarah fucking Palin so much that she might vote for McCain. My brain exploded. I asked why. She told me some bullshit about Sarah being a maverick and a rebel and new to the system. I almost shit my pants.

Holding back some serious ranting, I tried to calmly explain Sarah’s position on rape kits and abortion. I told my good friend that Sarah made women pay for their own rape kits and believes that all abortion, even in cases of rape, incest or threat to the mother’s life should be illegal. My friend looked shocked, puzzled. She said, “Really?” Yes, go look it up I replied. She told me she would have to see what the League of Women Voters said about Palin to decide.

I dropped the subject and switched to the guy at the top of the ticket. I stated that I can’t vote for McCain because of his support of never ending the Iraq war, regardless of its realities. My dear friend then said something that made me throw-up a little in my mouth: “He’s a veteran, what else can he do?” I looked her straight in the eye and said that I too am a veteran, and that McCain dishonors our troops every day by supporting sending them to die in a land we invaded to steal oil. I tried not to scream as I explained that supporting the troops means making sure they only go to war when they have to, not for corporate interests, not to take over a country in a colonial fashion.

I had to explain this to someone who prides herself for protesting Viet-fucking-nam. What the hell happened to the sixties generation? When the fuck did they sell out? I had to say good to see you and walk away. I can’t fucking believe what she said. I brought up Sarah’s religious extremism, I tried to tell her McCain is a war-monger; she just didn’t seem to get it. What the fuck?

This is what we are up against. I should have asked her if she would vote for a black man. I should have asked her if she had ever had an abortion (from past conversations I think the answer would be yes), I should have said more, but I was stunned; this wasn’t someone I thought I would ever HAVE to say to or ask those things.

For fuck sakes, this country is loosing it’s collective fucking mind.

Quick Debate Analysis

McCain is an asshole. Obama needs to stop saying McCain is right.

Longer version, McCain lied his ass off through the whole debate, and no, we veterans don’t believe you will take care of us. Personally I wish Vietnam would take you back. Better yet, I wish they would have never let you go. You should be fertilizer in a rice field.

Seriously Obama, stop saying McCain is right. He’s an asshole and a traitor.